Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Isotope Development and Production (1)
- (-) Isotopes (3)
- (-) National Security (5)
- (-) Supercomputing (4)
- Advanced Manufacturing (2)
- Biology and Environment (1)
- Clean Energy (7)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Fusion and Fission (26)
- Fusion Energy (10)
- Materials (16)
- Neutron Science (3)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (36)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (1)
News Topics
- (-) Nuclear Energy (12)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (7)
- Advanced Reactors (2)
- Artificial Intelligence (45)
- Big Data (22)
- Bioenergy (11)
- Biology (14)
- Biomedical (22)
- Biotechnology (3)
- Buildings (4)
- Chemical Sciences (5)
- Climate Change (21)
- Computer Science (104)
- Coronavirus (16)
- Critical Materials (3)
- Cybersecurity (23)
- Decarbonization (6)
- Energy Storage (10)
- Environment (26)
- Exascale Computing (22)
- Frontier (28)
- Fusion (2)
- Grid (11)
- High-Performance Computing (40)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (25)
- Machine Learning (23)
- Materials (20)
- Materials Science (19)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (7)
- Molten Salt (1)
- Nanotechnology (11)
- National Security (36)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (15)
- Partnerships (4)
- Physics (8)
- Polymers (2)
- Quantum Computing (19)
- Quantum Science (25)
- Security (14)
- Simulation (14)
- Software (1)
- Space Exploration (7)
- Summit (42)
- Sustainable Energy (12)
- Transportation (8)
Media Contacts
![Plutonium oxide is loaded onto a truck for shipping. Adam Parkison/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/PXL_20230620_120836896_0.jpg?h=2848f5af&itok=Nh31DLuy)
In June, ORNL hit a milestone not seen in more than three decades: producing a production-quality amount of plutonium-238
![Steven Hamilton, an R&D scientist in the HPC Methods for Nuclear Applications group at ORNL, leads the ExaSMR project. ExaSMR was developed to run on the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s exascale-class supercomputer, Frontier. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P00165_1.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=YE6_qVLk)
The Exascale Small Modular Reactor effort, or ExaSMR, is a software stack developed over seven years under the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project to produce the highest-resolution simulations of nuclear reactor systems to date. Now, ExaSMR has been nominated for a 2023 Gordon Bell Prize by the Association for Computing Machinery and is one of six finalists for the annual award, which honors outstanding achievements in high-performance computing from a variety of scientific domains.
![ORNL seismic researcher Chengping Chai placed seismic sensors on the ground at various distances from an ORNL nuclear reactor to learn whether they could detect its operating state. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/2023-P03398.jpg?h=3e43625b&itok=TXK8tthh)
Like most scientists, Chengping Chai is not content with the surface of things: He wants to probe beyond to learn what’s really going on. But in his case, he is literally building a map of the world beneath, using seismic and acoustic data that reveal when and where the earth moves.
![Stephen Dahunsi. Credit: Jason Richards/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/2018-P00115_Stephen%20Dahunsi.jpg?h=b6236d98&itok=lRQh92bt)
Stephen Dahunsi’s desire to see more countries safely deploy nuclear energy is personal. Growing up in Nigeria, he routinely witnessed prolonged electricity blackouts as a result of unreliable energy supplies. It’s a problem he hopes future generations won’t have to experience.
![State and Local Economic Development Award](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-01/FLCAward3_thumbnail.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=FKj_T8JY)
A partnership of ORNL, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and TVA that aims to attract nuclear energy-related firms to Oak Ridge has been recognized with a state and local economic development award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.
![Brian Damiano](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/2016-P04442.jpg?h=49ab6177&itok=lPIC-H6L)
Brian Damiano, head of the Centrifuge Engineering and Fabrication Section, has been elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
![asset management](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/Picture9.png?h=cf4f3851&itok=rVU02eNT)
East Tennessee occupies a special place in nuclear history. In 1943, the world’s first continuously operating reactor began operating on land that would become ORNL.
![Hector J. Santos-Villalobos, left, and Oscar A. Martinez](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/henaac20.jpg?h=158d9140&itok=-NxooIrE)
Two staff members at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received prestigious HENAAC and Luminary Awards from Great Minds in STEM, a nonprofit organization that focuses on promoting STEM careers in underserved
![The agreement builds upon years of collaboration, including a 2016 effort using modeling tools developed at ORNL to predict the first six months of operations of TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear power plant. Credit: Andrew Godfrey/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-02/wb2_xenon_1.png?h=19940d61&itok=Da4pDLde)
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 19, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate a new generation of flexible, cost-effective advanced nuclear reactors.
![Small modular reactor computer simulation](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-04/Nuclear_simulation_scale-up.jpg?h=5992a83f&itok=A0oscIPL)
In a step toward advancing small modular nuclear reactor designs, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have run reactor simulations on ORNL supercomputer Summit with greater-than-expected computational efficiency.